Wimax- Smart Grid Applications

With most of the cellular operators inclined towards the deployment and development of LTE, Wimax seems to lose its pace in the 4G race. That does not at all means that we have no Wimax to see in future, in fact it is now thriving with the introduction of Wimax based smart grid applications, machine to machine, public safety and surveillance applications.

Several Wimax smart application projects are underway. General Electric is working on the use of Wimax enabled smart meters, it’s the first ever kind of project in US. Cisco has invested in a Wimax smart application projects with Grid Net and co-partners like Siemens, GE, Accenture, Schneider Electric and Verizon. Alvarion announced its project with National Grid on smart power grid (SPG) using Wimax. Silver Springs Network in Florida provides connectivity to electricity, water and gas meters via Zigbee over a WAN with an IP based network. Microsoft’s SERA (Smart Energy Reference Architecture) is working for the promotion technology in the energy sector in collaboration with Puget Sound Energy, Xcel Energy and Seattle City Light.
 
According to ABI research investment in smart grid will reach up to $45 billion till 2015. With the rise in consumption of electricity has forced us to come up with feasible alternatives like renewable energy. Some are also in favor of solar energy. Wimax based stations of Intel are solar powered. Telenor is working on solar powered networks. Between 2010 and 2012 Alcatel is expected to install 10,000 based stations working on renewable energy.
Undoubtedly the energy demand will keep on escalating with time and the need for discovering renewable and cost effective energy sources will keep on growing. Wireless smart Grid applications may take time to progress but it presents an efficient electrical distribution mechanism.